------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: May 31, 1995 Issue #181 NOTED IN PASSING: There is a patient Army. There is an impatient Army. Choose which you like. From a letter by a SLORC officer threatening Karen villages. See REUTERS: U.S. CONGRESSMAN MEETS SENIOR BURMESE GENERAL ASIAWEEK: TWENTY GREAT ASIANS 1975-1995 [SUU KYI PROFILE] AUNG SAN: FASCIST BARBARISM NATION: BORDER TENSION A THAI PLOY, CLAIMS SLORC CHIEF NATION: SLORC CHIEF TO GO TOUR KHRG: SLORC ORDERS TO VILLAGES IN NEWLY OCCUPIED AREAS, PAPUN DISTRICT NATION: CALL FOR FORESTRY COOPERATION SARGALAY: MY BELOVED BANYAN TREE ---------------------------------------------------------- o-------------------------------o The BurmaNet News is an | | electronic newspaper | Iti | covering Burma. 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If you have questions on any of the following subjects, please direct email to the following coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you in contact with someone who can: Arakan/Rohingya/Burma- [volunteer needed] Bangladesh border Art/archaeology/: [volunteer needed] Campus activism: tlandon@u.washington.edu Boycott campaigns: tlandon@u.washington.edu Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission, c/o NBH03114@niftyserve.or.jp Fonts: tom@CS.COLGATE.EDU History: zar1963@violet.berkeley.edu Kachin history/culture: 74750.1267@compuserve.com Karen history/culture: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com Karen Historical Society Mon history/culture: [volunteer needed] Naga history/culture: [volunteer needed] [Burma-India border] Pali literature: "Palmleaf" c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Shan history/culture: [volunteer needed] Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S. Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: Dr. Christina Fink c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] ---------------------------------------------------------- REUTERS: U.S. CONGRESSMAN MEETS SENIOR BURMESE GENERAL 29 May BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuter) - A U.S. Congressman at the forefront of efforts to secure the release of Burma's dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi met the man regarded as Burma's most powerful general in Rangoon Monday. Bill Richardson, who last year became the first person to meet Suu Kyi since her July 1989 detention with the exception of immediate family members, was received by Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt at a military guest house, Burma's state-run television reported. The broadcast, monitored in Bangkok, made no mention of Suu Kyi or whether Richardson, a New Mexico Democrat, was given permission to meet her nor did it give any details about what was discussed. As well as Khin Nyunt, the head of Burma's military intelligence service and a senior member of the ruling military council, Richardson met Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw and other officials, the televison said. Richardson, who arrived in Rangoon over the weekend, was accompanied to the meeting by U.S. embassy officials. Richardson, met Suu Kyi, the 49-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and daughter of the assassinated architect of Burma's independence from Britian, in February last year. She told him then she was willing to discuss anything with Burma's ruling military body, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), apart from going into exile. The SLORC has offered to free Suu Kyi on the condition she leaves the country. She has refused. Late last year hopes for her release were raised when she had two meetings with Khin Nyunt and other top generals, the first in September and the second a month later. But since then there has been no sign of another meeting and SLORC leaders told a visiting Thai foreign minister in January that she would not be released until a new constitution was drawn up which diplomats say could take several years. The SLORC recently refused Suu Kyi's husband, British academic Michael Aris, a visa to visit his wife. One Rangoon diplomat said it was likely the government was putting pressure on her to accept freedom under specific terms, preventing her from getting involved in the political reform process. She was apparently refusing liberty on those terms. Suu Kyi rose to prominence in 1988 when she returned to Burma to nurse her ailing mother. Until then she had been living in Britain with her husband and their two teen-aged sons. Swept up in a pro-democracy uprising which exploded that year, she soon emerged as a charismatic leader of the opposition. The National League for Democracy (NLD), which she co-founded and led before her detention, swept more than 80 percent of the seats in elections on May 27, 1990, but the SLORC ignored the result and launched a crackdown on all opposition to military rule. ASIAWEEK: TWENTY GREAT ASIANS 1975-1995 [SUU KYI PROFILE] June 2, 1995 As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, Asiaweek profiles the shapers of the New Asia THE DISSIDENT THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE COMMITTEE CALLED HER "ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY EXAMPLES OF CIVIL COURAGE IN ASIA. It is hard to tell when Aung San Suu Kyi finally confirmed that her fate was bound up with the cause of democracy in her country. Perhaps it was on July 23, 1988, when strongman Ne Win announced that he was stepping down after 26 years of debilitating socialist rule. His surprise retreat triggered a frenzy of pro-democracy demonstrations. In the ensuing crackdown, soldiers killed as many as 3,000 people. Perhaps it was on Aug. 26, 1988, when Suu Kyi addressed a half-million demonstrators at Shwedagon Pagoda. With the crowd's chants of "Daw Aye Daw Aye" ("Our Rights! Our Rights!") ringing in her ears, she called for the resignation of the government and democracy for Myanmar. On Sept. 18, the military seized power in another round of bloodletting. What is clear is that at some point during those fateful months, Suu Kyi, daughter of Myanmar's independence hero Aung San, decided to take on the generals. It hardly seemed an even match: the delicate-boned, 1.6 meter-tall Oxford academic against soldiers schooled in repression and little else. Yet the crowds she drew, the attention she commanded and the courage she displayed and instilled in others, inevitably led to her becoming the standard-bearer for the fledgling democracy movement. When two truckloads of troops pulled up and aimed their weapons at a crowd she was addressing, she could coolly respond: "We are grateful to those who are giving the people practice in being brave." Such spirit was not allowed to go unchecked. In June 1989, when she was first arrested, 100 unarmed supporters clashed with police to try to snatch her back. She was detained for only an hour then. But a month later, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, as the junta calls itself, put her under house arrest that persists to this day. The generals miscalculated if they thought detention would blunt her appeal. They miscalculated again when they carried through on their pledge to stage Myanmar's first multiparty elections in 30 years. Perhaps they thought that with well over 2,000 candidates from at least 100 political parties in the race, there was little chance of a one-sided result. But Myanmar's 40 million people were of a single mind. In the May 1990 polls, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 392 of the 485 parliamentary seats. The mili- tary-backed National Unity Party won just 10. SLORC responded by refusing to honor the election results and jailing NLD leaders, along with most of their elected representatives. Such flagrant denial of the popular will drew international condemnation for SLORC, and mounting tributes for the woman who dared defy them. In October 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Said the Norwegian Nobel Committee: "Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades. She has become an important symbol in the struggle against oppression." Suu Kyi did not plan to become a political activist, let alone a national hero. She had left her home in England to go to Myanmar's capital, Yangon, in 1988 to look after her ailing mother. She had spent most of the previous 28 years outside her homeland, returning just eight times. SLORC tried to use that against her, saying she was a foreigner with no real interest in Myanmar. They also criticized her for marrying a foreigner, Oxford don Michael Aris, a Briton. They have two children. But Suu Kyi was very much her father's daughter. Born June 19, 1945, she was barely 2 years old when Gen. Aung San was gunned down while planning for the country's soon-to-be-granted independen ce. He is easily the most revered political figure in Myanmar history. Suu Kyi was researching a book on his life when she chanced upon a revolution-in-the making. She said she wanted to bring her people "freedom from fear." The simple message she preached matched her own elegance. "What we want are basic freedoms," she said. "A government that fails to protect political and democratic rights will never be able to protect the people's economic rights." Her jailers cannot bear to speak her name. In interviews, they refer to Suu Kyi as "the factor" or "the very specific problem." Problem, yes - and one that literally refuses to go away. SLORC offered her freedom if she left the country. But the sparrow - who can be as stubborn in her convictions as the toughest soldier - chose to remain in her cage, demanding the military open political talks. "I want to confront them across the table," she told a visiting U.S. congressman. This July will see the sixth anniversary of her arrest. For a time last year, it looked as if a truce might be in the works: Suu Kyi met with SLORC leaders for what she said was the first time since her detention began. Two meetings, both tele- vised, raised hopes that she might be released. Instead, the only thing raised was the level of rhetoric against her. By early this year, Suu Kyi was back to being, in SLORC's words, "the foreigner who should go back to Britain." But the ongoing detention, meant to remove her as a vocal conscience and government critic, has served only to ensure that she will attain a stature rivaling her father's. Once again, the generals have miscalculated. Asiaweek, June 2, 1995 AUNG SAN: FASCIST BARBARISM Posted by Burmese Relief Center--Japan nbh03114@niftyserve.or.jp In this 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, many Japanese are presenting themselves as liberators of their fellow Asians. On the same blood soaked ground, Mon and other peoples of Burma are again forced to toil to build railroads (and pipelines). Gen. Aung San's call to resist fascist barbarism was never more timely. (Address made by Honorable U Aung San, Deputy Chairman. Counsellor to Governor of Burma and Deputy President of the Burma Executive Council at the Memorial Ceremony for the men who died in captivity at work on the Burma-Siam railway (1942-45) held at Thanbyuzayat, Burma on December 18, 1946.) FASCIST BARBARISM Four years ago or so, war came to our country. And with it Japanese military fascism. Then in order to feed its war machine, our people were made to suffer and slave in various untold ways. Tens of thousands of our country people were forcibly sent to work on the Burma-Siam Railway and from 30,000 to 80,000 of them died in the most callous circumstances imaginable. We are now treading the ground which buried underneath the curses and groans of those thousands of dead. We enter upon this ground seared by this colossal tragedy with profound feeling and searching thoughts. We are filled with bitter sorrow that it should ever have happened. And we burn with sheer indignation over such wrongs as had been wrought by the Japanese Fascist barbarians against our nation and humanity Nevertheless we may take comfort in the fact that Nemesis had already taken them to task. Our people also had risen as a man and avenged themselves on the Fascists. This is but an inevitable and inexorable law of Karma--that as a man sows so shall he reap and that if any individual or nation oppresses or exploits another and violates natural and social justice in that way that individual or nation shall pay for that sin against justice and humanity. The world has thus been visited upon several times for so much that men and nations have sinned against one another. So long as injustice and oppression and exploitation of man by man and nation by nation continue the world must come time and again to fall into the grips of Nemesis. This then is the stem moral law which events have impressed upon the world so emphatically, and this is how I read the writing on the wall and the signs of the times. To-day, when we have come here in revered memory of those thousands of our countrymen and Allied Personnel who verily were made to slave to death, we all must have felt that never never again may the world find a place for the existence of human slavery and exploitation in any form. As we offer our prayers in our sacred communion with the souls of those dead, we must pray not merely for them but for the world that humanity may rise above all limitations and find deliverance none too long. And as thus we pray, let us also vow to ourselves that we will not rest and remain complacent till we have completely rid this earth of such cancer of Fascist barbarity, whatever its variants as degrade humanity and perpetuate oppression and exploitation. From: "General Aung San's Speeches (1945-1947)"; published by Sarpay Beikman, 1st printing, 1971, circulation 24,000 NATION: BORDER TENSION A THAI PLOY, CLAIMS SLORC CHIEF 29,.5.95/The Nation Agence France -Presse Rangoon - Recent tension on the Thai-Burmese border is the result of a " political ploy" by Thai politicians to "divert " the attention of the Thai people from a political crisis, according to the most powerful Burmese junta official . The state-owned New Light of Myanmar yesterday quoted Lt Gen Khin Nyunt as saying that " some Thai politicians traditionally turn to diversionary tactics whenever they face an unstable political situation." Khin Nyunt, the first secretary of the State Law and Order Restoration Council [Slorc] the official name for the Burmese regime, made remarks Saturday during a speech to a group of teachers graduating from an ideological training course at the Phaunggyi Central Political Institute near here. Khin Nyunt reportedly said some Thai politicians had purposely created problems at the common border and putting the blame on their military in an attempt to divert Thai people's attention from the shaky political situation. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, faced with a disintegrating coalition government and a no-confidence debate, dissolved parliament on May 19 and called snap elections for July 2. The Burmese Army had been accused of armed aggression , Khin Nyunt said. "Such border problems were created by the ' self-seeking 'Thai politicians and were aided and abetted by the foreign media, some non- government organizations ill-will against Slorc ," he said. The ploy failed because of the firm friendship and strong ties between the Burmese and Thai armed forces, he said. " The problems had not grown big due to the existing good relations and mutual understanding between the two armed forces," he said. The military here has categorically denied its forces entered Thai territory and rejected charges of having caused the split among the Karen National Union . NATION: SLORC CHIEF TO GO TOUR 29.5.95/The Nation Rangoon - General Than Shwe, chairman of Burma's ruling military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council , will make visits to Indonesia and Singapore "in the near future", it was announced yesterday. Burmese political analysts said the visits were significant milestones in the Rangoon junta's campaign to gain international legitimacy. United Press International. KHRG: SLORC ORDERS TO VILLAGES IN NEWLY OCCUPIED AREAS, PAPUN DISTRICT SET 95-B An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group May 1, 1995 / KHRG #95-14 Since December 1994, SLORC has been conducting a widespread offensive west of the Salween River to occupy northern Karen State's Papun District [see the related reports "SLORC's Northern Karen Offensive", KHRG 29/3/95, and "Porters: SLORC's Salween Offensive", KHRG 8/4/95]. In the process, SLORC forces have occupied areas which were previously strongly under the control of the Karen National Union, such as the Kyauk Nyat area not far south of the Kayah State border. Some fighting is still going on in the area. Many villages have been destroyed by advancing SLORC troops and thousands of refugees have flooded into Thailand. Those who remain are now getting their first taste of SLORC rule. The SLORC written orders translated in this report are SLORC's way of introducing itself to the local villagers. These orders were signed and sent to villages by a SLORC column commander. Some village names have been blacked out (denoted by 'xxxx') to protect them. Photocopies of the original orders are available on request. Please feel free to use this report in any way which may help the peoples of Burma, but do not pass it on to any SLORC representatives. ____________________________________________________________________ __________ Order #1 To all the villagers If the Army camp calls you, come. If the Army asks your help, help. Other villagers have already started helping. If the villagers help the Army, the Army will help them in return. If the insurgents in the jungle who are armed do not make peace, this means they are the ones giving trouble to the villagers. There is a patient Army. There is an impatient Army. Choose which you like. [Sd.] Lieutenant Colonel Column Commander, 31/1 [31/1/95] Order #2 2-2-95 To Village Head xxxx village Subject: Rotating duty for servants 1) In order to carry supplies for the [army] column in Kyauk Nyat area, your village and village group have to send 20 servants on rotating basis to Kyauk Nyat army camp starting on February 7, 1995, we hereby inform you. 2) If the servants comply with their duty, the Army will help them in return. If you fail to help with what the Army needs, that will be your responsibility, gentlemen. 3) Therefore we beg of you to discuss among yourselves and to try to send the servants, rotating for 7 days each, we hereby inform you. 4) To Wi Der village group and Wah Ko Der village group are carrying out rotating servant duties for the other [army] column. [Sd.] Lieutenant Colonel (Column Commander) Order #3 [This letter was sent to a village after a landmine exploded in the area.] 31-1-95 To: The in-charge of the village - We are being patient for this time. - For the next time, if you do any shooting or landmining we will burn you down (your whole village will be destroyed), we hereby inform you. - KNU and ABSDF, make peace or we will uproot you and fight you together with DKBO/DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Organization / Association [sic: Army]), we hereby inform you. - now your village head, come and contact the column (or) Kyauk Nyat camp (or) Pan Hai camp (or) northern Kayah State battalion urgently. - For now, we only saw an old man so we took him. Village head, come and apologize and take him back. - U Saw Blu Maung from Papun was killed by the Thay Way Heh group's landmine [Thay Way Heh is a local Karen Army lieutenant]. His family is asking for compensation, so go to Papun and pay it. - We didn't lay mines around the village, because we don't want to make trouble for female/male villagers, buffalos and cattle. We haven't done anything to the village. (This is our last forgiving.) - The village heads, collect 1 or 2 village elders and 5 villagers from this side [area], and go to Papun. Let Bo Eh Doh make peace. [Bo Eh Doh is a Karen Army company commander in the area] (Wishing all to stay tranquilly with darling wife and daughter), [Sd.] Lieutenant Colonel [Notes: there was a landmine explosion in the area, and there is still Karen Army (KNLA) activity there. This order effectively warns local Karen villagers that they are to be blamed for any and all KNLA actions and face SLORC's retaliation. Despite claiming to be patient "for this time", the Lieutenant Colonel admits that they have already arrested an old man and are holding him until villagers "apologize" for the landmine. U Saw Blu Maung was not a SLORC soldier, but a Karen from Papun, almost certainly a villager who had been taken as a SLORC porter for their operations in the Kyauk Nyat area along the Salween River. He may have been sent in front of their troops as a human minesweeper when he was killed by the landmine. The local villagers, who had nothing to do with the incident, are to be forced to pay "compensation" for him.] Order #4 31-1-95 To Village Heads Now, we Army are attempting to get peace. In order to develop all areas, Army (troops and columns) will often go in and out. Therefore, in order that all armed insurgents (KNU + ABSDF ...) and all young and old villagers can live in peace and to begin development, notify them that we invite them to cooperate with the Army or show them this letter. For the future - if the villagers around the area contact, support or protect the armed insurgents, the Army will solve that by strength of force. The Army never even put a freckle on the skin of the villages, farms in the forest or other property. Villagers, don't run away in the future. If you run, we are not going to take responsibility for what is lost or damaged. [The expression "never put a freckle on the skin" means "never did a bit of harm". "What is lost or damaged" is written to imply both lives and property.] Continuously comply with the following, by order of the Strategic Commander from Papun - - 2 village heads and 5 villagers from villages in To Si Der and To Wi Der village groups, as soon as you have received this letter start to get ready to collect people from villages [for labour], and go to see the Strategic Command Commander not later than 3/2/95. (In order that you should not fail for any reason, the Strategic Command Commander himself now informs you that if you don't go, responsibility for that will fall on whoever doesn't go.) Matters of peace and development in the villages In order to begin, report what you need. Warn and notify the following villages: 1) To Wi Der, 2) Wah Ko Der, 3) Pay Ploh Kee, 4) Toe Kaw Kee, 5) Naw Sa Da - and other villages. 1) Chaw Pweh Der, 2) Kyot Ko Der, 3) Meh Saw Kee, 4) Kee Po Der, 5) Lay Ain Zu --- and the village leaders from other villages, must go without fail. [Sd.] Lieutenant Colonel (Column Commander) [Note: While this implies that SLORC will provide some of the "needs" of the villagers for development, experience throughout Burma shows that this is very unlikely. It is more likely that the Army will report its needs (in terms of forced labour) to the village leaders.] NATION: CALL FOR FORESTRY COOPERATION 31.5.95/The Nation Rangoon -Burma's Ministry of Forestry is calling for greater regional cooperation to tackle deforestation and the smuggling of timber and endangered species ,Burma's state-run media reported yesterday. Lt Gen Chit Swe told a United Nations-sponsored forestry seminar on Monday that Burma's annual timber harvest was now about three million cubic metres , 25 per cent of which was teak and the remainder consisting of other hardwoods . Burma, one of the world's biggest exporters of timber including top- quality teak, still has 33 million hectares [ 81.5 million acres] of forest cover, according to official statistics. Reuter SARGALAY: MY BELOVED BANYAN TREE A satire by - Sargalay It is said that true beauty of a tree is appreciated only from a distance - not by sitting under it. Thus, with great reluctance but in good faith, I decided to spread my tiny wings and took flight to a distant Gum tree. Seasons came and went, and how greatly I miss my bosom mates who remained at Banyanville. We keep in touch through mail. I send them post cards with pictures of gorgeous looking birds from Bondi beach. In return they send me "sargalay-chee" to complement my avidity to local beverages, and medicinally potent "birds' vomitus" for my sagging vitality. King Rhesus doesn't appear to miss me much though. He reckons I am bad influence to the youth and my legs are too hairy on public TV. Time is too precious for big shots like King Rhesus anyway. There are much better things to do in his life than to bother with a half-wit, bald headed sparrow. Sipping "King of Kings" on the rocks after a tiring day at the golf-course, sounds more enticing. Captain Frog sent me a lengthy letter a few weeks after I arrived. He and his green cronies have come a long way since being promoted from a cesspool pond nearby. All have attained quite high ranking positions. Once, believed to be rare species with low IQs, these opportunistic amphibian reptiles have proliferated to an extent that many peace loving creatures living in the vicinity have become dangerously threatened. If not busy licking King Rhesus' facial and gluteal cheeks, these tongue-toting fellas are omnipresent discharging incredible responsibilities. Where would Banyanville be today without these multi-talented creatures who can handle anything from M-16s to multiple ministerial duties with such dexterity and finesse? They even come up with the most inappropriate tasks like croaking crap into microphones and cutting ribbons at televised functions. Some who accompany King Rhesus and his entourage can hold those golf umbrellas all day showing no signs of fatigue - come rain come shine. Such remarkable stamina and versatility. I take my "Khamauk" off (inadvertently exposing my hairless head) in acknowledgement for such illustrious feats. For all this hard work, they all eventually get rewarded handsomely with niceties like "Padone-mar" flowers and other perquisites. Then, we have those strong minded hornets in their nests scattered around the peripheries. They dedicate their lives among many other good causes, in making life of those tree-climbing branch-hopping animals extremely uneasy. Now and again, they venture out and stick their barbs into King Rhesus' big red bottom, especially during the dry seasons. But nowadays U Panda, our big brother from the north-east and a distant relative of King Rhesus, will volunteer to throw in a complimentary crate of pineapples during such conflicts. King Rhesus and his rat-pack reptiles will then utilise these fruits with ruthless military precision. No one talks about today's booming economy in Banyanville without mentioning Mg B'yine - the slick stork, with a flair for acquiring greenbacks and BMWs. This dude shuttles home and abroad donning fancy Giordanos and Nike Airs. He tugs hoards of miscellaneous booty with him during trips, and has remarkable talent converting them into US dollars. During his spare time he also keeps a tab on H.E.'s Swiss accounts. (For all you poor souls out there, who obviously never worked among diplomatic circles, wondering what on earth - "H.E." stands for, - it stands for "His Excellency" . . . ok?). "Dollar is the name and dollar is the game - Ko Sargalay!" said this cool cookie to me one day, while signing off another shipment of timber. Thanks to him. Almost every sod who is hooked on this money spinning game suffers from the "Dollar-$quint" or the "dollar-six-slant" as they call it in Banyanville. Some severe cases develop "Uncle Scrooge-stare." Consequently they all become terribly short sighted, and cannot see beyond 24hrs. The fishy otter brothers haven't changed a bit. They personally ensure that the freshest catch of the day reaches Miss Siamese Cat's dining table on the dot. By the way, she is rumoured to be having a secret affair with King Rhesus . . . (but don't quote me). Under the auspices of King Rhesus and his family of frogs, Banyanville is sub-served by a shameless clan of lizards, ghekkos and chameleons who totter up and down the tree trunk. They nod at everything that croaks and caws in sight. They also possess an extraordinary ability to make and take a lot of bull without batting an eyelid, but can change their strongest convictions in a split-second blink . . . (I'll keep my "khamauk" on this time). I had a long distance call from Ma Oh'wai the other day. Her plumage is fading due to pollution that has doubled since the day I left. In a choking voice she gave her heart wrenching story about how the land and trees have become so barren and bare. Many flora and fauna are close to extinction, yet King Rhesus and Company ignore her pleas and continue to plunder. Meanwhile, crows and vultures from the neighbourhood have joined the carnage. Feeling sick in my stomach, I passed on Oh'wai's call to my good mate Koala and they went on discussing about the depleting ozone layer. Just as the line was about to be disconnected, I managed to congratulate Aunty Pig for her recent participation in the "Rangoon-Runs" marathon. Her involuntary involvement allowed her to lose sixteen kilos and a sixty-carat ruby ring. But this achievement is short-lived by her incorrigible habit of gate-crashing those weekend weddings at the Inya-lake. Later in the day I called my cousin "sparrow-monk" to send me some more of his recorded sermons. Apparently he was out watching a soccer match and I ended up listening to his recorded message instead. For a migratory bird, I haven't fared so badly. Back home, authorities will agree to grant clemency for a distasteful act I committed one summer while resting atop U Wisara - provided 20% of my monthly income find its way home. Now, c'mon guys, isn't that penalty too harsh for a sick sparrow who just happened to be suffering from food poisoning at 12noon with no public loo in sight? Here in the land of Gum trees and Kookaburras, my expertise in picking up horoscopic sticks and scrolls is greatly appreciated among the superstitious orientals. It's getting pretty hard to keep up with such demand and my beaks are becoming bloody sore. As I perch delicately on these aromatic euclyptic branches, I look on helplessly, midst the changing hues of sunset, at my Beloved Banyan tree. Her beauty still exudes in spite of her blemished bark and wilting foliage. Ma Oh'wai's frantic calls from a distance, urge me to return to my original habitat. But hesitancy prevails whenever I imagine myself in the sights of a mighty cannon that is pointed at my face. SARGALAY 1st January 1995 Addendum: Head nodding lizards = "Yes" men Aiming a cannon towards a meek sparrow = Overkill "Padone-mar" (yk"krRm) = an exclusive shopping place for Rangoon government's elite society. Hand grenades are also known as pineapples. Oh'wai is the crying sound of a peacock - the bird that Burmese identify with unity and defiance. "U -Wisara" is the famous monk-statue situated on a minaret near Shwedagon. "Sparrow-monk" = (pmAkef;_uD;) = literal translation "Rangoon-Runs" = infective diarrhoea "Khamauk" (carmuf) = peasants' hat made from ?toddy leaves. "sargalay-chee" (pmuav;_cD;) = sparrow's droppings = description of a popular Indian snack "Inya-Lake" = famous hotel of Rangoon ------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET: ------------------------------------------------------------ ABSDF-DNA: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT [DR. 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